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Peter Thiel

20 statements across 7 episodes · 7 bullish · 10 bearish · 3 people on the record · first statement Jan 14, 2022 by Joe Lonsdale · said 88 times in 41 episodes since 2021 · across every show →

On the record as a speaker too: Peter Thiel's record, appearances and statements → this page counts the times other people say the name.

Mentions by year

brought up most by Joe Lonsdale (65), Mike Solana (10), Alex Karp (3), Scott Nolan (2), Balaji Sr i n i v a s a n (2), Tyler Scriven (1), Niall Ferguson (1), Nathan Mintz (1)

tap a year for its mentions
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0815202120222023202420252026episodes it came up in
001.57.5315202120222023202420252026episodesmentions per episode
2026 12 mentions in 4 episodes 3 per episode
2025 22 mentions in 10 episodes 2 per episode
2024 21 mentions in 7 episodes 3 per episode
2023 23 mentions in 12 episodes 2 per episode
2022 6 mentions in 5 episodes 1 per episode
2021 4 mentions in 3 episodes 1 per episode

every mention, scene by scene, with the transcript →

Everything said about Peter Thiel, oldest first

Jan 14, 2022 neutral
What-if
Lonsdale: X.com and Confinity would have failed without their PayPal merger
“Elon Musk, you know, had X.com and Peter Thiel had Confinity and they merged to become PayPal and both of them were probably going to die otherwise. That was the only way they could survive was to merge.”
Joe Lonsdale Jan 14, 2022 ▶ 8:16 Rep. Ro Khanna & Joe Lonsdale Debate Income Inequality and Regulating Big Tech · Joe Lonsdale
Aug 18, 2023 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Thiel funded Palantir's second round because McGrew joined
“You joining was really, really critical to Peter giving us like our money for the second time. Cause he was like, you guys got Bob to join. How'd you do that?”
Joe Lonsdale Aug 18, 2023 ▶ 6:07 Ep 66: Bob McGrew — the Superstar Palantir Alum Leading OpenAI's Transformative Research Projects · Joe Lonsdale
Nov 15, 2023 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Peter Thiel demanded immediate execution over pre-analysis meetings
“Working with Peter Thiel, there'd be times where I want to like Talk about something we were going to do, or talk about something we should analyze. He was never interested in that. He was like, just do it, and then come back to me with it. It was just this cu…”
Joe Lonsdale Nov 15, 2023 ▶ 9:51 Ep 70: Andrew McAfee on the Science Behind the World's Most Valuable Companies · Joe Lonsdale
Feb 8, 2024
Assertion Supported
Solana: Scott Nolan and I distilled Thiel's Stanford class into 'Zero to One'
“Scott, Scott Nolan and I at Founders Fund, we, he had just started around that time as well, it was like, 13 years ago. We came on to build out his class at Stanford, called CS-Intyre, that would ultimately become his book, Zero to one. So all of that informat…”
Mike Solana Feb 8, 2024 ▶ 14:28 Ep 77: Mike Solana on Exposing Corruption, Saving San Francisco, and Building a New Media Empire · Joe Lonsdale
Dec 13, 2024 positive
Opinion
Lonsdale: Musk, Thiel, and Koch are philosopher builders
“A lot of the builders who I admire most, whether it's Elon Musk, Peter Thiel, Charles Koch, they're deeply enmeshed in philosophy. They're philosopher builders, and they've taken the time to go and kind of work on society to make sure our society stays somethi…”
Joe Lonsdale Dec 13, 2024 ▶ 49:10 The Terrifying Truth AI Researchers Don’t Understand · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 negative
Opinion
Thiel: Austin, Texas Is a Government Town and Bad University College Town
“This is where I would be deeply skeptical even of a place like Austin, Texas. You know, it's, it is, I mean, it's a government town. It's a bad university college town.”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 36:33 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 negative
Disclosure
Thiel: Investing in cannabis proved extremely difficult despite obvious trend
“Another trend where I've tried investing some over, over the last decade is, you know, is, is all these marijuana related businesses. And it's like, yes, it's obviously like a big trend. But it's an obvious trend. And then It turned out to be extremely hard to…”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 19:56 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 positive
Opinion
Thiel: Fake AI would outperform the current federal workforce
“Maybe you can replace them with AI, or maybe you can replace them without AI, and just use the AI can be completely fake, and we can improve things tremendously.”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 48:04 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 positive
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Thiel: Silicon Valley experienced a rapid preference cascade away from left-wing orthodoxy
“And then you can get this, at some point, you can get this very, very fast preference cascade, and something like this happened in Silicon Valley in the last few years. It was a buildup that took a few years for people to realize that, you know, Things were ve…”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 46:54 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 negative
Insight
Thiel: Extreme optimism and extreme pessimism both converge on laziness
“Both extreme optimism and extreme pessimism converge on laziness and on people not doing anything. So so I, yeah, so I think moderate optimism is the correct thing.”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 15:43 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 negative
Opinion
Thiel: Students at Harvard, Yale, and Stanford Are Completely Lost
“It was a big achievement in a way for them to, for students to get into, you know, elite colleges like Yale or Harvard or Stanford. But they're completely lost once they're there.”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 2:59 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 bullish
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Thiel: Palantir faced zero competition for a decade after launch
“And so there was sort of an element where if you could get through, you would have no competition. And then, you know, a decade later, we still had no competition.”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 16:40 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 negative
Opinion
Thiel: Remote work is not working across portfolio companies
“What we know from our companies is that remote work is not working”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 47:38 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 negative
Opinion
Thiel: Left-Wing Philanthropy Is Often Cover for Criminal Activities
“So much of this left wing philanthropy nonprofit world, I think was, you know, it was just a cover for, you know, borderline criminal activities.”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 23:51 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 neutral
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Thiel: No VCs wanted to fund defense tech when Palantir started
“In 2004, 2003, 2004, 2005, when we started Palantir the idea of trying to do a military related software startup. There was nobody who even wanted to give you money as a venture capitalist.”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 16:22 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Thiel: Top tech CEOs express radically different views in private versus public
“There was a incredible felt sense among all the top CEOs I know in Silicon Valley that there's all the stuff you can't talk about. There are things they tell me behind closed doors that are very different from what they feel they can say in public. And the gap…”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 44:35 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 negative
Opinion
Thiel: Thousands of Officials Could Be Criminally Prosecuted for Mislabeling Funds
“And I think you could prosecute thousands of these people for criminally, For the thing that they wanted to prosecute Oliver North for in the eighties.”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 25:29 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 negative
Opinion
Thiel: Elite Universities' Function of Forming Leadership Has Broken Down
“Elite universities, I think the organizing function 50 plus years ago was you were supposed to get into the elite in our society, and that is completely broken down.”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 3:20 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Apr 17, 2025 bullish
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Thiel: Trump's Second Term Will Accomplish More Than His First
“Normally the second term does less than the first term, This is going to be the, I think will be the real first term.”
Peter Thiel Apr 17, 2025 ▶ 21:46 Tariffs, DOGE & Fixing America: Peter Thiel's Skeptic Solutions · Joe Lonsdale
Jan 26, 2026 negative
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Lonsdale: Facebook asked Peter Thiel to be openly gay for diversity
“I remember they had to ask Peter Thiel if you, if he could be openly gay for the Facebook board because it was important to count for the number of people.”
Joe Lonsdale Jan 26, 2026 ▶ 31:38 Investing in 2026: What You Need to Know (SEC Chairman) · Joe Lonsdale
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